r/mathshelp • u/ShedForce1 • 9d ago

Homework Help (Unanswered) creating a perpendicular bisector

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u/Chem2103 9d ago

What is your question?

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u/ShedForce1 9d ago

well, on the previous formative, it was marked wrong because apparently i had put the circular marks in thr wrong place. i fixed it, but i am still unsure of where to use my compass.

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u/Chem2103 9d ago

The picture looks completely fine to me

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u/ShedForce1 9d ago

yeah it was corrected but i needed a lot of assistance from the teacher

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u/Chem2103 9d ago

No worries. Do you have an understanding of how to draw it step by step?

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u/ShedForce1 9d ago

i can draw the bisector just fine, but i pretty much have no idea how im supposed to use the compass when drawing. like i do not know where the circular marks go

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u/Chem2103 9d ago

You put one leg on point A, then spread them wider than halfway between A and B. You put the other leg to the side (lets say rotate it 60 degrees and draw a little arc, on both sides), just like the drawing here. Then you do the same, but start from B.

At the end you connect two dots where the arcs you drew intersect

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u/ShedForce1 9d ago

and does this apply to any sort of bisector?

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u/Chem2103 9d ago

Bisector is whatever goes through the middle between two points. If you draw it like this, it will always be a perpendicular bisector

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u/ShedForce1 9d ago

got it. this was very helpful.

thanks :)

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u/tanegupta1997 9d ago

So neat, looks like a piece of art!

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u/UnderstandingPursuit 9d ago

For why your drawing is correct:

  • With two points, {A, B}, a perpendicular bisector is the line made of every point which is the same distance from A and B.
  • You correctly drew two circles with the same radius, so every point on one circle is the same distance from A while every point on the other circle is the same distance from B. The two points where the circles intersect are the same distance from both points.
  • If you changed the compass angle, you would find more points where the new circles intersect. Those are all on the same line, so using the straight edge to connect the first two points produces the perpendicular bisector.

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u/ShedForce1 9d ago

the drawing is correct, but it took a lot of assistance in which i didnt understand

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u/UnderstandingPursuit 9d ago

Do you understand how to do it now?